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Royal Institute of Technology: IPLab August 2003 Rough Around the Edges: Media Arts as HCI Practice Marc Böhlen, Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo |
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Human Computer Interaction researchers as well as media artists conceive computationally augmented
experiences. For HCI researchers, usability and efficiency are key desirables. In the media arts, the uniqueness
of an experience and exception to expectation is an often a sought result. While the goals of HCI
and media arts diverge strongly, their methods and audiences overlap.
This seminar will focus on approaches and ideas typical of media arts and discuss some of them in the context of HCI practices. In particular, I will focus on the concept of Long Term Interaction (LTI) as a meeting ground for the two disciplines. Interaction, as used in HCI, is usually not primarily concerned with time and place. In the media arts, interaction is situated, a function of time, place and perception. Requirements of functionality and usefulness do not apply. But time, place, perception and expectation are important parameters in designing artifacts that can retain attraction beyond novelty towards long-term presence. This seminar will investigate ideas in media arts that could be beneficial to HCI professionals interested in addressing the challenge of long-term interaction. In particular, methods of how to address long-term interaction scenarios will be discussed. The role of presence, place, expectation, control and narrative(s) as formative elements of LTI will be proposed. Can we make machines that will not bore nor bother nor haunt us years after we first encounter them? What really matters when one conceives of machines that share social spaces with people for long periods of time? The second part of the seminar will visit a series of works informed by many of the ideas discussed in the first part. Recent papers by the presenter can be found here: More Robots in Cages, SpaceRobotics2000 Machines with a Different Calling: When Artists make Robots, IROS 2002 A Different Kind of Information Appliance: Fridge Companion, CHI 2002 Lessons from the Sewing Kit, CHI 2003 Recent media art projects are described here: -> current projects The seminar will end with an open discussion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the presenter Marc Böhlen is an artist and robotics researcher whose practice merges the intuitive processes typical in the arts with analytical tools available in the engineering sciences to investigate new forms of interactions with machines. A graduate from the Robotics Institute and the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon, he is currently faculty member at the University of Buffalo in the Department of Media Study. He has presented papers and exhibited artwork nationally and internationally including at the New York Digital Salon, the Warhol Museum, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Recent papers were presented at CHI2002 in Minneapolis, IROS2002 in Lausanne and CHI2003 in Florida. Recent work has been featured at the iMAGES International Film Festival Toronto, ISEA2002 in Nagoya, the APEX Gallery in New York, Version3.0 in Chicago and the International Garden Festival of Grand-Métis, Reford Gardens, Québec. |